Wow, it's a really good day to be a Mac and iOS developer if your name is either Sparrow or Acrylic Software -- but not so much if you're a user of their products. Both companies have been snapped up by social giants (Google and Facebook, respectively), leaving their App Store wares essentially abandoned as they trot off to make their mark on bigger companies. As we play fire up some taps to commemorate our fallen apps, feel free to dig into the rest of the day's news for this Friday, July 20, 2012.

These days, we all have way too much email to cope with. So when RSS readers make my news feeds look like emails, I find something else to do. That’s why Times impresses me so much. Thanks to its cleanly designed, gorgeous presentation and simple interface, it restores the pleasure of reading news in the way that only newspapers could previously provide.